The invention relates to the field of communications in circuit and packet switched networks.
Circuit and packet switched networks have been traditionally used as separated networks with limited interaction and limited flexibility in selecting the appropriate network to route and process a service connection. With the advance of the telecommunication technologies, circuit and packet switched networks are converging into one network providing communication services to service subscribers. Such service subscribers are either land-based end users or wireless end users and require a flexible and reliable service connection regardless of the underlying network technology.
Traditionally, there is a fixed hierarchical relationship between the network elements in a communication network. This fixed relationship limits the flexibility on routing decisions for selecting an appropriate service control network by forcing service requests to be routed to a fixed service control element. Service control is limited to what is provided by that fixed service control element. There is a need to break the hierarchical dependency and move towards a peer to peer relationship to allow for more flexible and optimized service control options for both the network operator and the subscriber.
For service networks that contain both circuit switched and packet switched options, the subscriber (or the subscriber unit) traditionally must select the circuit or the packet network with limited information of which network is the most suitable for processing the service request. There is a need for a dynamic, context sensitive method that uses provisioned data and dynamic data available in the network to make informed decisions on the appropriate network to select for subscriber service requests.
Therefore, there is a need for an efficient and flexible selection of circuit or packet switched network in a communication system for providing a call connection originated from a subscriber unit.